Different, yet United
by swimming.in.lead.543
Summary: War is brutal, it never seems to end. Even with the near endless supply of soldiers in the form of clones, there are still those who would fight alongside these bottle-bred men. This is the story of one of those volunteers, him, and his squad, United on all fronts. Brothers. This is the story of Domino Squad, with a twist. Rated T for now, may go to M, I own Nothing BtW
1. Chapter 1

**So...yeah this is a thing. Anyways I've been reading the Republic Commando series and fell in Love it's portrayal of clones and their treatment, so I decided to make this, my take on the clone wars, from an on the ground perspective I don't see too often: Domino Squad. Things are gonna change, but not in the way some might expect, please, enjoy!**

In all honesty, volunteering for the Grand Army of the Republic may not have been the best idea I've ever had. My name is Thwei. Thwei al'Nagara I was born on Apatros. God-forsaken planet is the closest thing you can get to a hell in my Opinion...then again at this point I had never been to Mustafar. I've been alive for 19 standard cycles, and right now? I'm on Kamino. I'm the only remaining volunteer still on planet. Why? My squad. Domino Squad to be specific. CT-782, a heavy-weapons specialist, the clone is headstrong, but you can tell that he's not been in this world long. CT-00-2010...Droidbait. The guy...well lets just say he's not the best at avoiding blaster bolts. CT-4019, Echo if anyone...anyone followed protocol as much as this guy, the army would have absolutely no problems with insubordination. CT-4040, funny guy. Not a very good shot though. CT-5555...we call him Fives, he hates it but it fits. He's a good soldier, very good...just a bit uptight. Not that I can blame him, our squad is probably the worst one in training right now. Most of the other clones blame me for that. I've only been training for a few months now. The fact that I was a miner was obvious. I was a new soldier, a good one...but I was no clone, I was not bred for this. I went through remedial training, the Kaminoans constantly brought up my shortcomings, the clones outside my squad really don't care for my being here at all. I honestly stopped giving a damn after the first month. I got along well enough with my squad, and that's what matters.

"Thwei! Get your helmet on, the last practice test starts in twenty minutes!" Fives shouted, I nodded and put my helmet on, I grabbed my carbine DC-15 trainer. I prefered short weapons, less standard accuracy, but we could eyeball better than standard.

"I'm coming Fives, don't worry." I said, jogging up to the clone. The rest of the squad was there, 40-40 joking like always.

"I heard these lasts tests always have a catch, think our grapples will find it?"

"Think you can aim for it, 40?" I laughed with a smile, shouldering my carbine.

"Quit your joking 4040, Nagara, this is important. This is the last practice...we don't get it right we're done for in the last test." Echo this time, you could see the worry on his face.

"Take a breath Echo, we'll do worse if we go in high-strung. We'll make more mistakes than usual. Have you all been working on what we reviewed?" I asked, slowly turning my gaze to the squad as a whole, most of them had the decency to at least look squeamish. 782 spoke up.

"I did what was asked, can't say the same for the others. You going to pull your own weight this time, Thwei?" he asked, I shot a halfhearted glare at him. You get sick once and they hold it against you forever.

"I'm at full efficiency if that's what you mean. C'mon we're up soon." I mumbled, gesturing to the 'proceed' light turning blue, when it turned green we were to rush into the training field. It was a standard Citadel simulation. More towers and more droids than a scouting sim, but no mines, pitfalls, or laser wires.

"Stay in formation, only break if there's an opening in the enemy forces. We've got to get this right!" Echo shouted, I nodded opening up suppressing fire on the oncoming droids. We pushed forward like a blade, piercing through the first few waves, it was when droids started popping up from the ground behind us when shit started hitting the fan, 2010 got taken down from behind, the bolts knocked him out and I hoisted him over my shoulder, firing my blaster one-handed.

"GET TO COVER!" I shouted, vaulting over a prefab wall getting closer to the citadel. 782 was blasting away, mowing down the ranks, Echo, 40, and Fives joined me behind cover. "Surrounded and one man down. Not good odds." Fives stated, I growled mildy and peeked over cover to let off a spray of bolts. Droids were getting closer, spawned closer as well, grates in the ground shooting up droids as fast as we could take them down.

"Protocol says to stay in formation!" Echo shouted, letting off a wave of tabana ignition of his own.

"Forget protocol, we need to get that flag!" 782 has turned his Z-6 into a miniature turret, alongside the wall and blasting with minimal exposure.

"Load grapple cables!" I shouted, we all shared rank here. This was our last bout before the real thing, we needed to do this. I reached to my belt, but the grapple attachment wasn't there…"Who has the cables?!"

"Negative!" Echo

"Me neither!" 782

"Negative." Fives

"I'M EMPTY!" 4040, shouted, suddenly his position was bombarded my bolts, three caught him in the chest and sent him to the ground unconscious. 782 was taken down by a bolt to the helmet when he went to return fire. Echo as he was moving cover, bolts sprayed him down from the towers. Fives and I went back to back, firing in all directions. There were too many. Adrenaline flooded my system. I felt myself moving faster, bolts seemed to slow in midair, mine hit more often, I could avoid them easier. I heard Fives go down behind me and Had just enough time to spin and spray down the droids that did it. Keep firing, don't let up the volley. Green bolts flying all around, I feel one catch me in the shoulder from behind get knocked to the floor. Roll keep firing, blaster get shot, grapple, yank closest droid into the path of fire, throw. Punch, kick, ignore the pain...images of swinging a hammer, holding the hydraulic jack...never again. Leg of a droid comes off, use as weapon, SBD grabbed my arms, dozens of green bolts impact my armor, it locks up, I'm hurting, but still conscious.

" _Practice test complete: Results: Five clone KIA, One volunteer trooper KIA, Droids destroyed: 2,153 units. Fail."_ The voice of Lama Su cut through the air. I coughed lightly and the SBD drone let my arms go, I fell to the floor with a groan before pushing myself back up and removing my helmet.

"Son of a Hutt…" I sighed, walking to the rest of Domino Squad. "You guys okay? 782, you got hit in the head, any major damage?"

"I'm fine Nagara. I may need a new helmet but otherwise I'm fine." 783 replied, rubbing the back of his head, how about you? Faced the firing squad there."

"Aye...I'll be sore but otherwise alright." I stretched out and cracked my neck as a hunchbacked clone entered the testing room to clean up the destroyed droids. 99. One of the original batch, the bad apple if you talked to the Kaminoans. Good man 99, would've been a good soldier if Jango Fett hadn't evaded Lady Fate too many times.

"Good job boys. You did good today." He said, dragging away one of the many destroyed clankers,

"How you holding up 99? Leg giving you trouble?" 782 asked, moving to help the hunchbacked clone, Ninety-Nine waved him off.

"Don't worry about me boys. I'm just doing my job, like anyone else. Nagara! These boys treating you alright?" I raised an eyebrow at this, but nodded anyway.

"Practically blood by now. We all got our kinks to iron out though." I replied, retrieving my blaster from the ground and inspecting it for damage...the training bots were never known to be gentle on equipment. The squad of brothers and myself exited the training area and went back to our quarters. I let out a small sigh and brought up the topic that was ringing in my head. "Someone sabotaged us. 2010 didn't have the grapples either...everyone checked their gear last night right?"

"Affirmative." Fives

"Checked, cleaned, packed extra Tabana." Echo.

"I joke around a lot but not about this...I could've sworn I had all my equipment." 4040 there.

"Packed, locked and loaded." 782.

"I had everything ready, what about your reserves, Nagara, don't you carry backups?" 2010.

"That's what concerns me. They even took my backup. They have access to our supply lockup. I doubt its the General...she's not the kind of person to do that, along with that her order values honesty too much. Something is up." I stated, unclasping the armor from my arms and working on undoing my chest piece, the scorch marks were becoming more apparent. As I started cleaning it Echo practically shouted,

"Nagara you're wounded!"

"What?" Sure enough, looking down there was a darkened spot in my black undersuit, red droplets straining through a small gash. I couldn't even feel it...adrenaline maybe? I peeled off the top portion of my undersuit and took a look at the wound, it was a small cut but it was bleeding more than I was comfortable with, it'd require stitches...wait a minute you're off of Apatros, there's bacta bandages here. No more ancient healing techniques. I got up and moved to the first aid kit, retrieving the Bacta spray and applying it to the wound, I'd be fine in an hour.

"Someone has it out for me, the armour should've tanked that without failing...overcharged training bots." I mumbled, my musings were cut short as the door to our quarters opened, the clones stood to attention, three individuals entered the room, A togruta, a Siniteen, and an Arcona. I cracked my neck and wrapped a few bandages around my wound.

"And the weaknesses of allowing volunteers shows itself." Bric, bounty hunter, Siniteen, humanoid species, these Siniteens, brilliant people, can calculate hyperspace jumps without a navicom...this one however, was a complete and utter ass.

"Work a cortosis jack nineteen hours straight for a month, then call me weak." I grunted, pulling my bodysuit back up over the wound and turning to face the instructors. "General Ti, permission to access security footage of our supply lockup from last night, our grapple cables weren't in our belts, and my personal backups were also missing. All of us had checked our packs prior to this morning, something isn't right."

The Jedi General was a fair woman, as were most Togruta, however she was cut off before she could speak by Bric shouting,

"Adversity can occur in the field, you all should've been able to adapt. Hell I should be thanking this for keeping you rejects down." I growled and leapt up to my feet the bench I was on skidding back.

"The tower where the flag was is a prefab, there were no handholds or alternate routes. The cables were the _**only**_ avenue to secure the objective. There were _**no**_ options to adapt other than to dig in and defend our fallen, which we did." I stated, standing up to my full height and staring the Siniteen in the eyes, "this was only a practice test, but the saboteur got into our supply lockup, that means they either had some damn good slicing skills, or had administrative access. Either way you see it, we need to see that footage."

"You'll have your access, Recruit al'Nagara, but you must settle down. You're being borderline insubordinate." General Ti spoke up, I bowed politely and with a calming breath sat down, but not without a final word,

"Technically Bric doesn't have any rank in the Grand Army, General Ti, he's on the short-term agreement. He trains his batch and he leaves, unlike Sargeant El-les. He may be our instructor, but he has no power to claim insubordination, it's all public record if you wish to see if what I'm saying is true." I could see the Siniteen's eyes narrow, guess he never expected any of his trainee's to look into his contract. "On Apatros you learn real quick to get a background check on a new guy. Whether it's another hammer-jockey or the new foreman. Like I said, it's all public record, save for the mandalorians." I shrugged, leaning up against a wall.

"That is...interesting information, Recruit al'Nagara, I will be sure to keep this in mind. Nonetheless this test will be registered as a failure and your status as the lowest ranking squad will unfortunately be held until you all manage to pass a test, of which your final one is upcoming. I would prepare myself if I were you, domino squad, you all display fine examples of teamwork one moment, then end up arguing in the next. I will applaud your destructive capabilities, however. Two-thousand droids is nothing to scoff at, for a six man squad on foot with no explosive ordinance." I raised an eyebrow at the praise from the Jedi master. She wasn't much of a talker, this was different.

"Thank you, General." Echo spoke up, standing to attention with a salute.

"At ease, 4019. Like I said, you all are skilled in your own right, however you need to be able to pass this final test in the system, otherwise we will be forced to place you all into the maintenance corps...you, Recruit al'Nagara, would have to return to Apatros."

"I know the score, General Ti. We'll get it done. You've got five _Mando_ and a cortosis miner on this squad. Likely the hardest things to kill this side of the Galaxy." I said with a nod, we weren't going to give up, the six of us have been training like hell, we were gonna claw our way through by our fingernails if we had to.

"That doesn't mean you're immortal, Recruit." El-Les spoke up, finally.

"I'm more likely to die on the battlefield than any one of these men. I know that, Sarge."

"Just making sure you are still in touch with reality, confidence and arrogance are often mistaken for one another. Now then. As General Ti said, I would take this time to prepare yourselves, you've a long day ahead of you tomorrow." The Arcona instructor stated the squad nodded and with a salute the instructors walked away, leaving us to our devices. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. There were a lot of things that could've gone wrong in that conversation. Fives spoke up,

"That was risky, Thwei. I know you and Instructor Bric don't like each other but he looked ready to tear open your chest even more." He said, I let out a small laugh before opening my personal lockup and packing in my armor, the only difference between my locker and the troopers? The nine kilo cortosis sledgehammer.

"I've no doubt that he wanted to, Fives. Eh you can't win 'em all, but I've won this one. I got access to the footage. The system may think we're failures...but we're gonna blow away everyone tomorrow. Bravo, Epsilon, Charlie, we're gonna prove them all wrong. You're not a bad batch...you're brothers, all of you. I may not be your brother by blood, but you guys are the closest thing I've ever had to family, and I'm going to die before I let someone kick you down.

-Later that night, security camera station.-

The camera hub is a surreal place to look in, holoscreens dominated the walls and the constant flood of information, differences between squads and the quirks each clone displayed before your eyes if you looked close enough. Master Ti was in the doorway as I brought up the footage from last night around our squad's lockup.

"Recruit Al'Nagara, what do you expect to find?" She asked, I let out a shrug as I sped up the footage from our last known access to the lockup: 782 placing away his Z-6.

"I don't expect to find much, chances are this person isn't an idiot and is hiding their face, but having proof of foul play will be enough to kick off an official investigation. After that, we let the MP's do their jobs and the perp will be found. What I want to prove that my squad isn't a pile of bantha poodoo. General." I sped up the footage until it displayed another cycle of 782 placing away his gun...then another, then another. I growled and slammed my fist down on the display's power button. "They looped the footage…old trick but it still works it seems." I let out a sigh and leaned back in the chair, turning to face the General. "This ain't some elaborate test is it? I'm gonna feel pretty damn stupid if it is."

"No, Recruit Al'Nagara, not that I am aware of...this is unusual. How do you plan to proceed?" The Jedi responded, she seemed genuinely curious, I let out a shrug.

"Your force clairvoyance not telling you?" This got out a small laugh from the Jedi Master,

"It doesn't work that way, Al'Nagara, but in all seriousness, how do you plan to proceed?"

"Succeed despite their efforts. Piss 'em off, draw them out. Let the MP's deal with them once they do so, I don't have the jurisdiction to do much else. Besides I've got my squad to worry about...Best to focus on getting them through this war alive." I got up from the chair and made my way out of the security room and towards the sleeping pods, a few stragglers on the other end of the hallway, but no one from Domino was awake. I climbed up to my pod and turned in for the night.

-The next morning, ARC trooper presentation-

We stood in full armor, straight at attention, DC-15s on our shoulders, disciplined, strong, United. Warriors, soldiers, brothers.

"Today is your final exam, we have brought you here today to present to you a goal that you all share, ARC troopers. They all start here. Every one of them started off as one of you, cadets, training for this long war. Let's hear what they have to say." Bric's attempt at a rousing speech was...better than expected but still less effort than a foreman who lost the sabaac pot on Apatros the night before. Still, the unique armor of the ARC Trooper caught our attention, the entire batch, not just Domino squad.

"So you want to be Arc Troopers, eh? Well there's a lesson you all need to learn first, on the field, there are no squads, there are no rivalries, we stand United, as brothers one and all. You hear me!" Commander Colt. I didn't know much about him then, but the clones did. I honestly wonder what I missed.

"SIR YES SIR!" The shout echoed through the hangar, it left my ears ringing even if I had joined the shout. The commander was speaking again,

"Now let's begin these exams, how about we start with the squad who ran the course in record time! ARC TROOPER time, Bravo squad, you're up." With that, the assembly broke back into squads, with one exception. "Domino squad, a word." Commander Colt, probably noticed the six man squad instead of the normal five. "You've an extra man, I see." I stayed quiet, Echo spoke up,

"Sir, he's a VT, sir." The ARC Trooper turned to me and I nodded, I didn't share the same face as my brothers in arms, that much was obvious.

"Got a number, kid?"...I'm likely older than you.

"VT-7852, Thwei Al'Nagara, Sir."

"These are my brothers you're fighting alongside, seeing a stranger standing next to them doesn't sit well with most of us."

"Does it bother you, Commander?"

"You any good with that rifle on your shoulder?" I kept a straight face before Hevy, a name he told us this morning, spoke up.

"Sir, he's the second best shot on the squad."

"Who's the best, then." I let out a smirk,

"He is, Commander."

"Well then, try to keep it that way, CT-782."

"The name's Hevy, Sir."

"Hevy, good name. VT, how far are you willing to go to protect my brothers?" I stared into the ARC Trooper's visor unflinching.

"Sir, with all due respect, they're my brothers too, in all but blood, anyone tries to get to them, they'll have to climb over my corpse and deal with the consequences first." I stated, the squad knew this, we had spent enough time dodging blaster bolts and the sneers of our peers to solidify this bond. These clones were my family, a bunch of nine year olds in men's bodies, my little brothers, and I'd be damned if I'd let them die on my watch.

"He being honest, Brothers?"

"SIR YES SIR!" This shout may have had less members, but it seemed to be even louder than the previous. He spoke about unity moments before, and now there was a display of it right in front of him. We stood there still at attention for a moment before Commander Colt spoke again.

"At ease, Brothers, that includes you, Nagara. Keep them safe. We'll have our eye on Domino squad." With those words he departed to oversee the graduation exams, Domino squad? We went to prepare. We were gonna blow this test out of the water if it killed us.

-later, Domino Squad's last exam-

The elevator ride to the testing area was tense, to say the least, Cutup tried to lighten the mood with a few jokes earlier but most of us were still steamed about what he had told us about what happened the night before, ironically the same events that gave him the name he chose to bear with pride.

"Your ribs okay, Cutup?" Hevy asked,

"I'm fully functional." The joker replied, I rose my hand in a fist,

"Game faces on, boys. Cover to cover, take out the towers. We don't know what they've got waiting for us. Cables, no cables, hell, even if they take our blasters, we're gonna show them what we're really made of." My speech was short, we were all nervous, but we needed one last push to get the objective locked in: we are going to win. No matter what. Hevy took point, positioning himself at the front of the formation, an arrowhead, a blade piercing through enemy lines with Fives watching Hevy's back, I took the left flank along with Cutup. Droidbait and Echo, the right. The doors opened and we got to work, we rushed to cover, firing our shots and observing the field. Tower gunners, swivel turrets on the citadel itself, shifting pillars with droids taking potshots.

" **Watch out!"** I heard, before Cutup yanked my head down to avoid a shot from our backs, droids were popping up from the ground. We got back to back and continued pushing forward, Cutup watching my back and myself watching the flank, the right flank had adopted a similar pattern as we made our way to the citadel. The turrets made themselves known as they began to start laying down a barrage more accurate than its previous iteration. We took cover, but we're separated. Four and two, Cutup and I had to dive behind a separate wall. Hevy's voice went through our Comms.

" _Those turrets are going to tear us apart if we don't do something about them. Ascension cables or not. We need ideas, boys!"_

" _I'll draw their fire, take them down and make the climb."_ Droidbait stated, with a quick nod four of our squad moved forward, I rushed to Droidbait's side.

"I'll cover him, GO!" I shouted when they turned in surprise. I stood by him, firing concentrated bursts to disable the columns of turrets on the citadel, from what I can tell, each member of the squad took out two, once they were all disabled Hevy turned and layed down suppressing fire while Cutup, Fives, and Echo began the climb. Droidbait and I regrouped with Hevy and covered him as he got up as well. Next was Droidbait, who got up without incident, then it was me. Not so much. Commando bot managed to latch onto my foot as I was hoisting myself up the first tier. Hevy mowed it down but the damage was done. More droids were being deployed, closer and closer, how hadn't Echo, Fives, or Cutup gotten the flag yet?! At this time I hadn't known they already had, they system was still sending droids, a malfunction, supposedly. Yeah right. I kept mobile, darting around, picking off any droids that tried to make the climb themselves while avoiding the blasts of those targeting me. Blue bolts mixed with the green of the training droids. My team was trying their best to cover me, and doing a good job too, there were so many droids piling up dead that the automated dumping couldn't keep up, a mound of durasteel corpses was accumulating near the first tier of the Citadel. Oh yes. Blasting down an SBD I made a mad dash to that mound, with a leap I planted my boot on its peak and used it as a footstool to launch myself to the edge of the citadel, I hoisted myself up with a roll and turned to lay down fire alongside Hevy and Droidbait, three more armored bodies joined us, a firing squad of six determined souls. The droids has stopped spawning but there were still many active, blue blasts rained against green, side doors opened and another squad joined in...I could see Commander Colt amongst them, on the other side of the battlefield I spotted a blue blade of light. Master Ti darted in, El-Les sporting a DL-44 shortly behind her. What felt like minutes, was actually seconds as we mowed down the remaining droids. When all was clear, me made our way down the citadel, over the mounds of scrap, and towards our commanding officers.

"General, Commander, Sarge." Echo greeted, standing to attention with a salute, all of us joined, we didn't know what else to do. Training didn't prepare us for this situation.

"At ease, Domino Squad." Master Ti spoke, we relaxed and traded glances with one another, what was going on. "You six displayed immense chemistry amongst yourselves, as well as a grand example of keeping calm under unexpected circumstances, I commend you for that." We beamed at the praise, only to balk at what came next.

"Yes, You've done well Domino Squad, however...this last wave of droids was not intentional. They were overcharged and modified, they didn't respond to the kill switch. This leaves us to believe that your suspicions of Sabotage were correct, Cadet al'Nagara. Luckily we have apprehended the perpetrator and have him in custody." El-Les stated, gesturing behind us. The citadel wall was littered with glowing red blaster holes, those would've been lethal…"with that in mind we would like to congratulate you. You have passed your final exam with flying colors."

"Welcome to the Grand Army of the Republic, Cadets." Commander Colt this time, stepping forward and snapping his hand to his forehead in a salute. We quickly reciprocated.

" _ **SIR YES SIR!**_ "

- _later on, locker area-_

We had finally done it...word had gotten around, we beat a sabotaged final exam, set up by the 'brilliant' Siniteen bounty hunter Bric, who was now behind a ray shield on a transport headed to a republic prison planet. Domino squad was issued proper trooper armor now, even me. With our helmets on you wouldn't be able to tell that I wasn't a clone. I overheard Hevy speaking with 99.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be back. How else am I going to get this back from you? Be safe, _nine'ika_." Mandalorian suffix, interaction brought a smile to my face, things were looking up. I unpacked my locker and changed into standard fatigues, I packed my armor into a cargo bag, and attached my hammer to a magnetized plate on its side. I must've taken longer than I thought because soon it was just me and 99, he was staring at a medal in his hand. That must've been what Hevy has given him, his graduation insignia.

"I'll make sure he gets home safe 99." I stated, hoisting my pack onto my back. The deformed clone looked up with a smile. The man had heart.

"I've no doubt you will. You watch yourself as well, hear me? _Thwei'ika_."

"You've got my word, Big Brother." With those parting words I began to make my way to the hangar, no doubt where everyone was. Something seemed off, however...footsteps, behind me, safety being clicked off. I ducked a blaster bolt and dove to the side, grabbing one of two weapons I had on my person...the Cortosis Sledge.

"It was easy enough to break out of my bindings, Nagara. You couldn't have left well enough alone. I could've been payed and gone by this evening, but no." Bric, son of a _**HUTT**_. I darted behind the lockers as another bolt was sent my way, I could see him now. He was holding a Scout Blaster pistol, two shots down, four left. Just one could put me down right now though...the blaster turned in my direction and I rushed to another set of lockers as two shots whizzed by. Two more. I can work with this.

"Why'd you do it, Bric? You working for the Seps now?!" I growled, provoking another shot towards my general area, I stalked my way closer to him, staying behind cover.

"Nothing so trivial as that, though I should expect so much from a cortosis miner, always jumping to the simple conclusion, ain't you?" Good, got him ranting when he only has one shot left in his canister. Scout holdout blaster pistols were just that: holdout weapons. They were meant for emergencies, not long engagements. They packed a hell of a punch, but they only had six shots per tibana canister. "I was exercising Siniteen education...a small group is singled out as undesirable, and the remaining participants will work harder to avoid being slumped in with that group, this improving performance, this isn't just personal, Nagara...you insulted my species."

"Your species is fucked up." I growled, turning the corner and rushing him, ducking his last shot and slamming my hammer into the side of his right kneecap, I heard a snap and he fell down onto it, with a quick strike I flicked the hammer into his jaw and knocked him into oblivion. I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding and remagnetized the hammer. A few moments passed before a security team came to collect the unconscious Siniteen, General Ti was with them.

"I had just received word. Are you unharmed?" She asked, I nodded.

"I'm fine...a bit winded, but fine. Heh, he drilled discipline against emotion into us, but came after me for petty vengeance. Ironic."

"You could have killed him." Yeah...that wasn't a question.

"Oh I wanted to...by the long night I wanted to."

"Then why not?"

"You're the Jedi, you know what moments of uncontrolled anger and impulse lead to." Something seemed to click in her mind.

"You're force sensitive." She stated, seemingly believing it to be truth, hell it could've been. I didn't know.

"Not that I know of, General. I'm just a guy trying to do what I can for the galaxy. And right now, that getting my ass to my squad and our new post."

"And where is that?"

"Rishii".

 **Welcome to my hellhole of an imagination, Star Wars! XD. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed, and please: Review so I can know what you all think of this. Is it good, is it bad? Do you all know what I've incorporated into my character's name and backstory? Internet cookie for those that can figure it out, anyways, I thank you for giving this fic your time and I hope you all enjoyed, I humbly request again that you all review so I can see what I can do to improve the story, thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey y'all, I know it's been a while and this chapter's a bit shorter than I'd like but school has been Hell...like seriously I've been writing this shit on my phone between classes XD. Anyways I hope you all enjoy, along with this update I've added another story that I've been working on for a while, a Black Lagoon Fic that's a soft crossover with the Undisputed movies, check it out if that interests you. Please remember to review, it let's me know how I'm doing as a writer and how much you guys like the story. Enjoy this chapter: Rishi.**

Rishi reminded me too much of Apatros at times. It was dark, quiet, monotonous, and everything was grey. I should've known our first posting would've been some backwater moon, but still, this was a whole new level. Even so, I knew the importance of this base. At the very least my position in the base was something I was good at: quartermaster. I cleaned and maintained the blasters, placed requisition orders, and kept track of how much Liquid Tibanna we had left to heat the base. It was menial work but at least it kept me occupied, my Squad wasn't as lucky. Droidbait was the deck officer, Cutup was a gate guard, Fives, Echo, and Hevy were scope monitors. I honestly worried about Droidbait a lot, if anything happened he'd be the first to go, but it was the sergeant's decision, not mine.

"HAHA! Who's next? Echo? Fives?" I heard Hevy exclaim, he'd won another arm wrestling match between him and Cutup.

"Shouldn't you be focused on your scope, Hevy?" Echo replied, yep, this place was getting to him, he's irritable again.

"Oh yeah, let's have a look...whaddaya know, all clear, just like the last fifty times. I dunno if you've noticed, Echo, but we've landed the most boring posting on the Outer Rim." Hevy ranted before a new voice joined in.

"And one of the most important." Sarge. Our Sergeant, also his name, coincidentally.

"SERGEANT ON DECK!" Fives this time, we'll all snapped to attention.

"At ease. I know you all don't think it but this base hold immense strategic value...and should hold an important place in your hearts. This base one of the only relay stations that defends our home planet Kamino. Should this base fall, Kamino would be open to invasion...we need to be ready for anything. An inspection crew is coming soon, I want everything running at peak efficiency, and Nagara, make sure you're wearing a shirt this time." With that remark a few chuckles rang through the area. The previous inspection had been a surprise, as such I thought nothing of exiting the 'freshers with just the lower half of my bodysuit on. Jedi General Unduli ended up seeing me attaching my leg armor still shirtless, and I thus became known as Flash, to those not in my squad.

"I'll be sure to remember that, Sarge." I laughed out before straightening up and stretching out. I had an aching feeling in the back of my mind all day, I didn't know how bad it was gonna be then. Alarms went blaring.

"Sir, incoming meteor shower!" Echo, springing into action.

"Raise the shield."

"You always said you wanted excitement Hevy,"

"Yeah, oooh, meteor shower, feh." We'd get meteor showers occasionally. This wasn't anything new. Still, the ache moved from the back of my head to a pit in my stomach as the shield was raised and the meteors impacted. Those that struck the shield were vaporized on contact, those that didn't, crashed into the surface and woke the Rishi Eels. Giant gas gulpers that gained a taste for flesh occasionally. That's honestly what I thought the pit in my stomach was from, an eel close by. Probably got shook out of hibernation from the impacts. I rose to my feet after the impacts stopped,

"Sir, permission to aid the deck officer?" I asked, the sergeant rose an eyebrow,

"Got a good reason, Flash?"

"A bad feeling sir, worse than last time." The last time I had this pit in my stomach, one of the LT tanks blew up. Nearly set the whole outpost ablaze, we could never find the cause.

"Granted, bucket on, soldier." Sarge's reply was quick. One thing that had been solidified amongst our squad's time here on Rishi, I may not have been bred to be a soldier, but I sure as hell had good instincts. I got my helmet on and my carbine loaded. Hammer was already on my back, never strayed too far. I got outside and walked up beside Droidbait.

"Anything on the scope, 'bait?" I asked, the young clone lowered his visor and scanned the horizon. The feeling in my gut got worse, then I heard it, stone cracking, metal clinks. Droids. "'Bait, scope off, we don't need it. Gun up, stay on my nine."

"Got it Thwei'ika. Audio?" We turned and slowly walked back towards the blast door to the outpost,

"Clankers, closeby."

"On our six."

"Turn and spray?"

"Turn and spray." With that short exchange we spun and layed down a layer of blue bolts. Droidbait got on comms with Sarge.

"Contacts on the platform!" He shouted, I pulled him behind me as a crimson bolt flew to where he was a second prior. Our initial blast caught one droid in its cranial processor, along with multiple hits upon its chassis and joins. It was in pieces. It's brethren we're taking cover behind crates, E-5 blaster rifles, One held a vibrosword. The blast door opened, Hevy, Sarge, and Cutup let loose with a wall of fire as Droidbait and I rushed into the outpost. The blast doors closed and we all rushed into the comm center. Sarge spoke up.

"Activate the distress beacon, we have to warn the Republic!" He ordered, Fives replied sullenly.

"They're jamming us, Sir. We're cut off." Suddenly sparks began emerging from the second set of blast doors, they were cutting through.

"Fierfek." Sarge growled before shoving Domino squad towards the ventilation shaft. "Get out of here. We'll keep them off of you. We can't defend this right now, but you can take it back. Those are your orders, Domino Squad." Sarge's eyes burned with a determination as he hefted his weapon motioning for the few other clones to take up defensive positions. We followed our orders. Escape. Survive. Retake the base. Defend the Republic. We were silent when we exited the ventilation shaft. Our friends had just sacrificed themselves for us...those droids were gonna pay. One way or another.

"What are we gonna do?" Droidbait's voice cut through our silence. Hevy responded: "Our Jobs. Those clankers got their sights set on Kamino. Closest thing we got to a home, I'm not gonna sit by and watch. How about you?" His small speech was bet with the sound of safeties being switched off. It was time to get to work. We stayed close to the base, once being set upon by an eel, Cutup put it down with a few choice shots and we retreated into a few caverns to avoid detection. Soon enough the sound of engines cut through the air, something ticked,

"The inspection team, they're here." I said, lowering the visor on my helmet. Getting a full view of the transport carrying two clone officers. "They're walking into a trap…"

"We need to get their attention. Anyone?" Echo asked,

"I can signal them with this flare!" Fives replied, loading a droid attack flare into his pistol. I still don't know how he got his hands on a DC-17 but by the long night I was thankful for it. He launched the flare into the night sky and we soon heard the sounds of blasters being fired. A short pause, then a barrage. We kept our eyes on the platform. Red plasma skirted through the night sky. Blue bolts occasionally cut through, but soon enough, an explosion knocked the inspection team's ship off the landing pad and into the canyon below. We rushed to the fuselage and began our search for the team. Hoping they had survived. Cutup and I pulled out a corpse,

"Sarge…?" I mumbled lowly, before pulling off his helmet, only to be met with the faceplate of a commando droid…"son of a Hutt…" I growled, circling around the wreckage to meet up with the rest of our squad, only to be met with blasters from two troopers, one with blue accents, the other in the yellow stripes of a commander.

"Buckets off, NOW!" The one in blue shouted, we took off our helms. Once mine was off I was tackled by the commander and my head was slammed to the ground, my ears were ringing from the impact and I could barely hear Fives' shout.

"SIR HE'S A VT!" He shouted, getting the officer to get off of me and allow me to get to my feet...I was close to death by a comrade that day. I wouldn't have blamed him, he probably thought I was a wet...an organic separatist officer or spy.

"Birth planet?" The Commander asked.

"Apatros." I answered,

"Name and number."

"Thwei al'Nagara VT-7852, Sir."

"Position on this station."

"Quartermaster, Sir."

"Combat role?"

"Mid-to-close range. Sniper alternate." At this the one in blue spoke up,

"We've got ourselves a batch of shinies Cody." That's new, never heard that one. We didn't have time to comment as another Eel sprang from a hole in the ground, the blue clone put it down in a single shot. "Before you ask, it's because of your armor." He continued, checking the wound he inflicted, right in the eye, instant kill. "It's shiny and new." He placed his hand on Echo's chestplate, staining it with a blue handprint. It'd stay there throughout or service to the Grand Army of the Republic. "Just like you." Heh, rhyme. "I'm Rex, but you will call me Captain, or Sir, am I understood?"

"Sir, Yes, Sir!" We all sprang to attention.

"I'm Commander Cody. Who are you, troopers?" My squad turned to me at this...I realized then that's when I was chosen to represent the squad, our band of brothers. I spoke up.

"We are Domino Squad, Sir...We were ordered to escape and retake the listening outpost by our CO...he's dead, we're all that's left."

"Well your orders haven't changed, boys. Retake the outpost, and repel any reinforcements that come, understood?" Rex this time, once again we snapped to a salute,

"SIR, YES, SIR!"

-transitions are weird-

We got up to the platform and hauled up the scrap that wore our sarge's armor. Part of the plan Captain Rex cooked up. We got them to open the door, and then we unleashed hell. Blaster bolts firing every which way, the worst part of the assault being the commander of the droids charging with a vibroblade. Rex dodged and I took its head off with a burst of fire.

"Sir, they've hard-wired the all-clear signal. We can't stop it." Echo spoke up. Rex gave out orders.

"Cutup, Droidbait. See what you can do about the All-Clear signal. Nagara, get the armory open. Hevy, go with hi-"

"SIRS!" Fives this time, looking out the window...a dropship.

"Nagara, get the doors open, NOW. Get me every detonator we have." Red yelled

"I'll get you better than thermals. let's go Hevy. Fives, Get the LT." I dashed off and hastily entered the code to the armory. It didn't work. "Shit they sliced it...brute force it is." I growled, taking my hammer off my back. Commander Cody had followed us.

"That hammer isn't going to do much. It'd be better to slice it." I ignored him and began swing the hammer into the durasteel. The loud crash echoing through the base. Hevy spoke to the commander on Comms.

"Trust me, Commander. This'll be faster, either way, none of Domino would be able to slice through a new batch of code fast enough." I kept swinging the hammer, the right half of the segmented door began to shake with each impact. With a roar I raised the hammer over my head and brought it down. The door broke off it's segment and fell inwards.

"These prefab doors are designed like civilian box cutters...they're scored to break off in the event of an emergency, although usually the method used is a breaching charge." I stated as I walked in, grabbing Hevy's Z-6 and tossing it to him. I walked over to the end of the room, two crates, plasteel, marked 'explosive, handle with care'. I opened them up and revealed the contents to the Commander. I could practically see his eyes widen beneath his helmet.

"Mining charges...that'll work...those will work beautifully. Get them set up with the LT Hevy. Nagara. Take the Dets and set them up near the entrance. Cook up a minefield for those clankers." I let an evil grin grow on my face.

" _ **Sir, Yes, sir.**_ "

One thing they teach you in the GAR explosives course is to set mines exclusively on the ground. I never understood that. The sensors are tripped if they're on the ground, the walls, the ceiling. Anywhere. Hell, placing them above the target area yielded the best results. Blast goes down, hitting the cranial areas of all targets. Dead or decommissioned instantly. Feet first allows survivors...okay that got dark. Either way, when I started tossing thermal dets onto the ceiling, I had a reason. I had them in segments, just outside the others blast radius, I put a few on the walls as well, and the final doorway was a veritable wall of explosives should anyone dare step into the sensors. I stepped into the main office with a shit-eating grin on my face.

"Mines in place Captain, Commander. Nothing's getting through that entrance without...heh, significant casualties. I'm assuming Domino squad showed you the way out?"

"Aye. It's time to get this done. Help Hevy with the explosives. Meet us by the grate. We're blowing this place sky high." Rex stated, tossing me my helmet. "Get your bucket up and get moving, soldier."

"Aye Aye Sir." I helmeted up and dashed over to Hevy, he was fiddling with a datapad, trying to get it to sync with the mining detonators.

"Hey Nagara...damn thing won't sync…" Hevy grumbled,

"Then put it on a timer. It takes two minutes to get to minimum safe distance, set it to three. Hit it, and then we bolt." I suggested with a shrug. We did it all the time when mining. Same concept applied here.

"I forget that you were a miner before this sometimes. Then you pull shit like this. I'll inform the CO's wait here." Hevy ran off to tell Rex and Cody. I waited, idly cradling my rifle. I could vaguely see the dropship finally landing. We didn't have a lot of time. Hevy sprinted up to me and nodded, he hit the timer and we made a mad dash to the vent, I closed it behind us and we crawled our way out of the station. We met up with the rest of our squad and waited...we had thirty seconds on the clock, and we could hear explosions. The mines.

"How many bloody mines did you set up?"

"Twenty-three."

"How many seconds we got left?"

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two...boom" an explosion larger than all the rest shook the station, a burst of flame shot out of the vent we exited from, a chunk of the station itself hurled into the dropship, making it careen off the landing pad and into the canyon below...that, was one hell of a night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey all, yeah it's been a hot minute ain't it. Sorry about that, but my stories aren't dead just yet :P anyways this is the siege of Kamino, this ones a Doozy.**

"Fives, get me a z-6 mounted up on that Parapet! Hevy, take a squad and fortify the eastern catwalk, Echo! you've got the west. Cutup, Bait, with me. We're with general Skywalker. C'MON BOYS, WE GONNA LET THESE CLANKERS KRIFF UP OUR HOUSE?!" I shouted, standing up and sending a spray of blaster bolts down the hangar. The separatist invasion of Kamino. We delayed it on Rishi. We raised the Alarm...but we couldn't curb it. The entirety of Domino Squad had been assigned to the 501st Legion, for me that was an honor I never thought I'd have. The invasion started not long after we arrived. It turns out all of our planetary defenses don't mean much when the enemy is already on the planet. In the endless oceans. Squid-like drill pods rose from the seas like the tales of the kraken of old. They pierced the durasteel walls of the stilted buildings and deployed armies of droids in our home...we lost almost a thousand men in the first day before we were able to form a steady defensive line. Even now we were only barely beginning to push the, back to the initial insertion points...and the resistance was fierce. Honestly...I've never seen my clone brothers fight so hard in my time here. Men...defending their home. Their brothers too young to join them. I banished the pride from my mind and fell back behind the lines. My brothers from Domino coming to stand beside me. We made steady pace through the halls, getting to the war room in decent time. I let out a sigh and removed my helmet in the presence of Captain Rex, Commander Cody, and Generals Skywalker and Kenobi.

"Domino Squad, Welcome. We have a task suited for Al'Nagara's...explosive skill set." General Kenobi spoke first, I raised an eyebrow but nodded and leaned forward.

"What do you need, General?" I asked. Rex spoke up next.

"The separatists are here to steal or destroy the last remaining usable DNA of Jango Fett. They want to cut off production of clones for the Grand Army of the Republic." He said, I nodded, I was curious as to why they were attacking, other than the obvious morale hit. "We need you to set up a minefield all around the DNA storage, and then, once anything getting anywhere near that room will get blasted to the outer rim, you take the DNA, and run back here. Even if you don't get back here in time before the Seps reach the storage area, It'll be on the move, and they won't know where it is. There are over a million clones in this structure alone. Keep your helmet on and they won't be none the wiser." Rex continued, pointing at the layout of the facility on the holo-projector. General Kenobi was the next to speak.

"If our current lines hold, you should be able to make it to the storage facility and have the mines prepared with time to spare, however I can't shake the feeling that the droids we're fighting aren't the only ones. Droidbait and Cutup will be coming with me. We'll be performing a patrol along the perimeter, setting up sniper positions and reinforcing our flanks. You've already set the other members of your squad to do the same along the Hangar Line, From what I heard." I nodded,

"Fives is setting up a line of z-6 turrets along the upper catwalk above the main line. Hevy is setting up Prefab Cover on the easter catwalk. Likely is also setting up a few turrets as well. Dooku himself would have trouble getting through those lines. You've got men out there fighting alongside blood, defending their brothers too young to fight. Hell itself ain't gonna break those lines without a fight." I said, standing straight and getting my helmet on. "I'll get started on the Minefield. Am I to do this alone?" I asked, to my surprise, General Skywalker walked over.

"No, I'll be going with you. Two sets of hands will get this done faster." He said, I nodded and we began our trek to the storage facility. We passed by Ninety-Nine, who, reacting fast for someone in his state, tossed us a bag of thermal dets.

"Get it done, Thwei'ika!" He shouted. And I couldn't help the laugh that escaped my mouth.

"Curious clone." Skywalker commented, I shook my head, jogging a bit faster, slinging the pack of dets over one shoulder.

"He's a good man dealt a bad hand, General. Life ain't fair to a lot of good people." I said as we turned a corner, the map on my HUD letting me know we were at the mine-zone. I tossed the extra pack to General skywalker and got to work.

"Speaking from experience?" The general sasked, I shook my head.

"General, I'm good at taking things apart. Cortosis veins, mining jacks, droids...people. I know things that some don't. Sure. But am I a good person? I don't know. My brothers say I am. The clones...they're Naive until reality hits them in the gut." I say, setting up the mines in my personal pattern of intersecting sensors. "Unfortunately...for too many of them, reality is a blaster bolt." I let out a sigh as I set up the final detonator on the main hallway.

"You talk like an old man for someone younger than I am."

"...I'm seriously only a cycle younger than you, general. Not all of us are trained in the ways of the Force." I grumbled, approaching the final walkway that had access to the storage facility.

"That is something I need to talk to you about actually...Master Ti believes you may be force sensitive. And I've been hearing stories about you in the field...especially in this siege. Did you really bust down an armory door with that hammer?" Skywalker asked, walking up after finishing his hallway, leaning against one of the walls.

"Aye...y'see, a lot of the doors the republic uses are built like Utility knives. In a factory, they score and break off pieces of durasteel to the required length. Usually this leaves behind marks on the doors, the diagonal lines you see. It's why breaching charges work. They're _designed_ to break. When I started swinging away at that door. I was hitting it with about the same force as getting hit with a landspeeder. takes longer, and makes a hell of a racket, but I busted the door down well enough." I explained, Idly bring up my hand to adjust the handle of the sledge on my back.

"You can keep trying to explain it all you want, doesn't change the fact that you're going to come with General Kenobi and I to Coruscant once this siege ends. You're being summoned by the council." I froze at those words, turning to face the General.

"You're kriffing with me." I mumbled, shaking my head and placing the final detonator on the ceiling of the hallway.

"Nope. They're just going to run a few tests, you're even older than I was when my sensitivity was discovered. There's no way they would make another exception to tradition." Skywalker reassured me, but I couldn't shake the unsteady feeling. I sighed and gestured to the door.

"I don't have access to this thing, You're up general. we can talk about me getting grilled by a bunch of seasoned warrior monks later." I grumbled as Skywalker opened up the storage bay, extracting an opaque white vial.

"Here." He said, handing it to me, I quickly put it into one of the pouches on my belt. "You've got the future of this war in your pocket, Trooper."

"Understood, General...Lets get out of here so I can arm these mines to make any clanker dumb enough to pass through here go up in smoke." I said, and the chaos was on. once we reached minimum safe distance the mines were armed and a warning sent out to all trooper helm HUD's. The fighting was getting fiercer. Aqua droids had appeared on the only recently-reinforced flanks. we were fighting on all fronts, soon enough, I wouldn't doubt the seps would send in their heavy hitters...or a hidden blade. I was pacing around the war room, going stir crazy. I could see the fighting on the monitors...a minute's run away. I could have been down there...fighting, keeping my brothers safe.

"Peace, Al'Nagara. I can feel your frustration from here." General Kenobi spoke up, I let out a growl.

"They're not my blood, but my brothers are out there fighting and dying while I'm up here getting ready to run at the first sign of an enemy contact. Forgive me if I'm not in the best mood." I sighed, bringing my hammer off my shoulder and resting the head on the ground, using it like a cane.

"Domino Squad's vitals are all going strong. you've no need to worry...tell me about your weapon there. Rather unusual to have something so unwieldy, don't you think?" I raised a hidden eyebrow but shook my head.

"Only unwieldy if you don't know how to use it. This is a 9 kilo cortosis sledgehammer, when the jacks busted on Apatros we would bring these bad boys out to crack the rock around an ore vein so that the pickers could go through. Cortosis, can't damage itself, you see. This was the first thing I bought when I was finished paying off my pa's debt. Blasters are illegal on Apatros, at least for the miners. So this was the next best thing." I explained.

"Why not a vibroblade? Something...swifter?"

"I can't bust down a door with a vibroblade, can I?"

"Fair enough. I've heard stories about cortosis, is what they say true? That lightsabers can't cut it?"

"It absorbs their energy output and messes with their batteries. Say if I were to block a strike from say, Grievous. His blades would disappear and I would have about a minute before his lightsaber would be back up and running, so all I would have to worry about would be the other Three."

"So against an attacker with only one lightsaber, you would target the blade to disarm them, and then the head to finish them."

"The knees before the head. Can't dodge if they can't move. Honestly though, I don't want to fight anyone that has a lightsaber. I might have good reflexes, but I've seen Jedi fight...I don't want to risk it against a sith." I felt a shiver run down my spine as I went through the situation in my head. "Hard to take a swing at someone who can choke you to death with their mind...seriously...if you're gonna choke a man to death...use your own two hands.

"You fear the Sith?" Kenobi's interest seemed peaked.

"Aye...I'm not afraid of them per se. I'm afraid of fighting them. I can see a lightsaber, I can predict where it'll move, watching the shoulders and wrists. I can't see the force...I can't defend against it."

"You fear being helpless."

"Basically. at least, that's what I think I'm afraid of...fear is a weird thing. I can be afraid of something and still try and put a bolt in its chest."

"You're brave...I'm assuming Anakin told you about your summons?"

"Aye...why me, General? They find anything...they ain't gonna like it." I let out a sigh.

"Master Ti felt something in you. I can sense it the more I speak to you. There is a spark in you, Al'Nagara... ignoring it will only lead to it tearing you apart." Kenobi's words were said with utmost confidence. I let out a sigh and continued watching the monitors. Watching the battle.

"Do you know what my name means, general? Its an old, tribal Tongue."

"I have a guess. But enlighten me if you will." Kenobi did seem a learned man...still. The feeling in my gut was sinking worse and worse.

"Blood. 'Thwei' means blood. My full name means 'bloody longsword'. Whatever Master Ti saw. Whatever you sense. It's nothing the Jedi want anything to do with...I'm best put to use here...boots on the ground, swinging my hammer at the right people." I said with a sigh. Slinging my hammer back up to my shoulder.

"The choice that you make, whether to swing that hammer, or who to swing it at, are yours alone. The future's not set in stone. Even if it were, I've a feeling you could shatter that stone. Go, join your brothers. You're making me anxious." I nodded and dashed out the door, a small smile underneath my helm.

I was running along the perimeter, taking pot shots at the onslaught of slowly moving Droids when the voice of Echo came through the Comms.

"Attention all forces, General Grievous has been sighted among the onslaught in the hanger. Requesting reinforcements!" I just about did an about face before general kenobi's voice broke through the comms.

"Diveriting forces your way Hangar front. All forces be on the lookout for infiltration units. If Grievous is here, Ventress can't be far behind." ...honestly, that couldn't have had worse timing. I was close enough to the storage are that I could see the mines going off.

"I think thats her at the storage area. General...DNA is still

with me, Do I get to you?

"Negative. Keep moving Al'Nagara. Good hunting."

"I'll do my damnedest...Al'Nagara out." I sighed as I unslung my rifle and took aim, the Hud in my helmet synced with the targeting system within the DC-15 itself. My sight zoomed in, a blue tint showing in front of my eyes. A few figures soon appeared through the smoke. Droids mainly, then two blades of red. I de-synced my hud and ducked into the corridor, crouching low to stay hidden.

"Kriff...kriff...kriff…" I muttered under my breath. I went on Comm once more. "Ventress sighted at the DNA storage area, Nagara moving to stay hidden, divert patrols away...I'll throw a few false trails out. Nagara out." I whispered into the radio. I was terrified...didn't think it'd give me away at the time. Until a pair of feet landed on the catwalk I was just on.

"Come out, come out trooper...There's no use running. I can sense your fear. Your frustration. Yes...your emotions speak to me." Ventress' voice like the whisper of death. I sealed my armor. Breathing and my muttered curses silent to the outside world as I backed away from the sound and further down the corridor. "Anger now. Blood boiling beneath the surface as you wonder where you went wrong. Such succulent emotion. You're not like the rest of these troopers. You've experienced life...A volunteer. So eager to throw your life away, child?" I ignored her and kept my rifle pointed in the direction of her voice and the approaching footsteps, I palmed a detonator in my off hand. It wouldn't be much more than a comfort. I decided to finally speak.

"I sincerely doubt coming out is going to change the outcome of this. You'll try to stab me, I dodge, take a few shots that you deflect back at me, I try to run away, you use telekinesis to choke me to death. Not really giving me a reason to show you where I am." I silently rolled the detonator to rest at the corner where the catwalk met the corridor, I trained my sights onto it and tuned my helms microphones to pick up the smallest sound, footsteps, near silent echoed like a jackhammer, I could hear her heartbeat, and her voice thundered as she approached the corridor.

"You've got such confidence that you'd avoid the first strike. I assure you that will not be the case."

"Honey I never said you'd be delivering it." I quipped before my blaster barked and sent a bolt into the thermal detonator. She jumped away, the detonator exploded, a wall of fire between me and her, I locked eyes with her through the flames. A second long staredown before I fired my blaster with one hand, unslinging my hammer with the other. She deflected them back at me, I blocked them with my hammer. Another brief staredown as the flames subsided. I stood there, hammer resting on my shoulder and rifle braced in the crook of my arm, muzzle tracing her every move.

"You're not like these...artificial men."

"Give them the chance to live a few years and you'll change your tune. They bleed, fight, and die like any natural born." I countered across the three meter gap I blew between us.

"I could cross this gap and remove your head in a single bound. You're aware of this."

"Aye, but I can blast you out of the air before you touch durasteel. At the very least It'd divide your attention between landing and deflecting tabanna."

"You've a tactician's mind."

"Just a dirty fighter."

"Why speak. You could've slipped away once you reigned yourself in. I hardly sense anything from you now."

"You and I both know that's a kriffing lie. I'm kriffing terrified...but I ain't letting that stop me from keeping you distracted. Longer I keep you here, the longer you're not killing those under my protection."

"You shoulder the weight of the world along with that hammer? Naive. Every moment I stand here the battle droids lay waste to your barricades, General Grievous slaughters your bred men. Battles on worlds lightyears away take lives by the millions, and you're concerned about one Sith Assassin?"

"I can't do anything about a million droids on a planet far far away. You. You're right here, and I'm on the smart end of this rifle, and I've just disabled the rate of fire limiter." Her eyes narrowed. Her grip on her lightsabers tightened, my own grip tightened on the pistol grip and I steadied myself into a ready stance.

"Your rifle doesn't hold enough shots." She countered.

"Could be modified, could've loaded a high-cap canister. Could be empty, I dunno. I could be lying, maybe I'm not. I could have done a thousand different things to rig this in my favor, you don't know that. Your job is to try and kill me, while avoiding whatever nasty surprises I've got for you. My job is to keep you here as long as possible. Living through it...that's just a luxury. I'm not arrogant enough to think I could kill you here...the stars would have to align and the devil himself would have to guide my bolts. But I'm feeling lucky today. How about you? You feeling lucky today, Ventress? Your assault met a prepared defensive force under the command of two Jedi Generals, Generals whom you have failed against numerous times before. Your own personal battalion of Aqua Droids were decimated by my little welcome mat by the storage station. Even now I have you in a Corellian standoff. So. Tell me, Assaj Ventress of Dathomir. Are you feeling lucky?"

"...what is your name?" Finally she spoke, The blades of her lightsabers retreating into their grips.

"...VT-7852. Thwei Al'Nagara."

"Blood of the Longsword...welcome to the game." With that she lunged. I jumped back myself, spraying the sky with a stream of bolts that her dancing blades deflected and away. My gun ran dry fast. My bluffing finally giving away as I hurled the blaster rifle at her, she cut it in two as I rolled out of the way of her follow up cut. I went on the offensive, I swung my hammer down in an arc of destruction, she swung her blades to meet it, thinking they'd cut through it, and me, like a knife through butter. Her eyes when her blades shorted with a spark, priceless. Using the hammer as a vault I swung myself, driving my feet into her chest and knocking her back. Something fell to the floor, she fell out into the open air and down towards the sea...a ship intercepted, copilots seat empty, time stood still, Grievous piloted, Ventress glaring at me with unending hatred as she resigned herself to her rescue. I stood straight and magnetized my hammer to my back. I looked down to pick up the object that had fallen to the floor...no way...no kriffing way. I kneeled down, taking the object in hand, a grip. Curved with a lens on one end...I pressed down on the button...and a blood red blade erupted in front of my eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Coruscant...hellhole of politicians and the criminal underworld, also home to the jedi temple. The transport was quiet. Save for the bustling of the planet outside the walls. My hammer hung at my back just a bit heavier...I was unarmored, not unarmed...for some reason. I kept myself busy, I cleaned my blaster a dozen times on the descent...I took to twirling Ventress' saber in my palm. The three jedi on the ship seemed amused by my anxiety. I didn't get the joke. My nerves were shot to hell. We were about an hour away when they finally decided to talk to me.

"You shouldn't be worried, Al'Nagara. They only want to talk. You've done the improbable. Time and Time again." Kenobi spoke, I let out a mirthless chuckle as I hooked the saber onto my belt.

"General if I took your word on that being the truth I wouldn't be much of an Apatrosite. It's probably nerves...but I don't like this place...Feels like I'm back in the mines, always something waiting to go wrong and end up killing you...Planets like this. Big tourist and population centers always put me on edge. Least on Apatros I could tell when someone wants to stab me in the back, here...those fake smiles are so rehearsed I'm pretty sure the people putting them on think they're real." I stated, gesturing out the viewport to the bustling city-world.

"Should I be offended that you have such a negative view on the world I was raised on?" Kenobi responded with a chuckle, I let out a small laugh.

"And here I thought you had thicker skin than that, General...I'm just nervous. A council of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy want to discuss my future. I'm a confident guy, General, but this is outside of my area of expertise."

"That expertise being…violence, in multiple forms. From what we've seen." Master Ti spoke up.

"I've an aptitude for it I guess...not as much as old Dessel, if you believe the stories. But I've gotten on the overseers' nerves enough times."

"We'll know the outcome of this soon enough. You've no reason to worry. The council may be strict, but they are fair. Come. We're here." Master Ti replied before the transport came to a stop in front of the Jedi temple. Stone, Durasteel, and statues. A place of learning, teaching, meditation to understand the strange Force.

"Time to face the music." I sighed as I got up, I adjusted the strap of my hammer and we exited the transport. I followed the three jedi into their home. Through the winding corridors and into the council's chambers...they were already assembled, I could see a few Holo-projected figures in the seats. Generals Kenobi and Ti took their seats and I was motioned to stand in the center. I did so and stood tall, hands behind my back.

"Young Al'Nagara. Do you know why you've been summoned here?" Dark Skin, permanent scowl, Bald. Mace Windu.

"Well I know it's not for the incident on Rishi with Master Unduli. I'm a Cortosis Miner, Master Windu, Let's not beat around the bush, It'll go over my head." I stated simply, turning to face the man directly.

"Value bluntness, you do, Al'Nagara." Master Yoda...Small creature, ancient by the looks of things.

"I value honesty. I grew up watching everyone around me making sure they weren't about to put a shiv, or a pickaxe in my back. When someone's being straight up with me, It's a relief."

"Deception, you sense easily?"

"I've got a nose for Bantha Fodder if that's what you're asking. Look, Master Yoda...I appreciate you trying to ease me into this and distract me from my worries, but please...Lets get on with this...I fought a Sith Assassin, survived, and came back with this little bauble on my hip. I've been told for weeks now that you all can sense something in me… my main concern is that it's gonna be something you don't like and I don't walk out of here to return to the field to fight alongside those I've sworn an oath to protect."

"A dangerous gift, you have, Al'Nagara...Much like Skywalker, been born in the republic, had you been, nutured properly, your gift would be. Unpredictable, your gift, now is." Yoda spoke, Windu spoke once more.

"Ignite the saber for us, soldier." I sighed but did so, subconsciously twirling the grip in my hand before I thumbed the button and the blood red blade sprang to life.

"You've already made yourself familiar with it?"

"I've not used it on anything if that's what you mean...Red ain't my color."

"Red symbolizes power and strength, users of red blades covet both, often using synthetic crystals." Another master, one I didn't know, a mask covered the lower half of his face and his eyes had no pupils. "You don't?"

"Strength, what, my muscles, my mind? I only want to be stronger so I can do my job right. If I could stomach the sight of men dying on the battlefield and not go there to be alongside them, I wouldn't be standing here would I?"

"Al'Nagara has proven efficient. En route we observed him studying the saber, even practicing stances reminiscent of Form 1… The way of the Sarlacc. Thwei...Humor us, Go into the first stance that feels natural to you." Master Ti...I let out a defeated sigh before nodding and adjusting my stance. Shoulders squared, I gripped the curved hilt with my strong right hand. Right foot forward, left foot back, knee bent slightly, blade presented in front of me as if to keep an attacker at bay.

"It's been too long since you've been in training, Master Ti...That's a Makashi Stance, dueling. He's too tense, but I've no doubt he would snap to a counter in an instant. Am I mistaken, young one?" Ki-Adi Mundi, one of the other masters.

"...aye...If I can see it, I can react to it...not always successfully, mind you. I've got the scars to prove it. Always been that way." I replied. "I'm more suited to the hunk of cortosis strapped to my back." As I spoke I deactivated the saber and placed it back onto my hip. "Using this thing, I wouldn't know. I haven't studied Lightsaber combat. Axes and Hammers...that's my forte. Heavy hitting, breaking through guards...shattering durasteel."

"A six inch thick durasteel armory door." Kenobi this time…"Anakin how did he explain his reasoning behind that?"

"Standard republic doors are scored and broken off of a slab in the factory, similar to utility knives...the issue with his reasoning."

"Outdated, his information is." Yoda once more, a small laugh escaping his aged mouth. "Individually built, hardened, tempered... _reinforced_. Beginning of the war, this was. Heh heh heh. Apologies, young Al'Nagara. Humanly Impossible, that feat is...without the Force." I held back a grimace as more of the council leaned forward, now interested. I let out another sigh.

"Well...Kriff." I let out under my breath. There were a few chuckles throughout the council. All except one, Windu.

"Never have I seen one so apprehensive to the prospect of force sensitivity as yourself, young al'Nagara." The Jedi master spoke, stern faced and inquisitorial. I turned to face him, and with a heavy sigh, I began to speak. I gave up hiding my concern.

"I am a simple man...I am also an emotional man. I get scared...I get angry...I use that anger to overcome my fear...When I stood face to face with that Assassin, I was terrified...Damn near paralyzed...I decided, that instead of being scared...I would get angry. I detonated a mine, I sprayed fire at her...I used my hammer. Fully intent on caving in her skull. All of these things, I know go against your code. Considering I have this...gift you call it. My own opinion, It's a curse. It put a target on my back. For you, and the Sith now. Who knows what else." I stated taking my hammer off of my shoulder and displaying it in my hands like a trophy. "I use this tool as a weapon. It's not designed to be. To be quite frank. It's heavy, unwieldy, slow, and its drawbacks far outweigh its merits...but I still chose this, over a vibroblade, over a stun gauntlet. Why? Because it's sturdy. I get sucked into a black hole, this thing will come out the other side in one piece...It's a stone. At its core...an anchor. My armor breaks, I break...this. It won't. I know, that if everything fails, that if beyond all possibility everything else goes wrong. I can still use this to protect all I have sworn to protect. I will tear myself apart to keep what I hold dear safe. Just so happens what I hold dear happens to be a squad of ten year olds in the 501st." I slung the hammer back onto my shoulder. I locked eyes with Windu...it was a simple test. He wanted to test my resolve.

"A strong will, you have. Good to see, that is. You will not be a jedi, that is true...still, training, you require. In the art of the Lightsaber, Kenobi will tutor you. A last resort, Ventress' Saber, will be." Yoda's voice cut through the chamber faster than his own saber. Muttering throughout the room, but nods of assent...I looked to Kenobi, to be honest, he looked nervous.

"The separatists have Grievous...wielding the sabers of Fallen Jedi, he holds the rank of general, you, sergeant….Sergeant Blood. Wielding a longsword. You will be our answer. Irony. It seems, will be our weapon given unto you." Master Plo Koon spoke once again. I couldn't help a small smirk grow on my face at that, until Master Windu put the final word in.

"We are placing great trust in you, Thwei al'Nagara. There are some who would prefer your gift be buried. And some who would prefer to see you buried along with it."

-Weeks Later, after the Death of Zero the Hutt, Aboard the Resolute-

Domino Squad had integrated into the reserves of the Resolute. ARC Troopers weren't meant to be an active force aboard the ship, we were ground troopers, at most we'd be deployed as boarding parties during space battles, if not assigned to gun positions. We were in Orbit of Sullust, intel pointed to an attack on the planet by Confederate forces being imminent. Intel had been improving after Kamino. Oftentimes we had time to prepare at least a half decent defence before Confederacy ships arrived, if not a solid one. Unfortunately for me, It was during this waiting that Master Kenobi felt it would be best to tutor me in the way of the sword. Domino Squad would come along to watch, learn how to synergize with a member wielding a plasma blade.

"Stretch out with your instincts, Al'Nagara. Your eyes can deceive you." Kenobi's voice rang in my ears as I stood in a ready stance feet planted firmly, blade held perpendicularly to my head, my standard helmet replaced with a flight helm with a blast shield afixed down.

"General...Thwei is one of the better shots on Domino squad, how would his eyes deceive him?" Echo asked, I heard the buzzing of the training drone darting around me. I adjusted, following the sound.

"His eyes may be sharp, but rely on the senses too much, and you can be caught unawares." Kenobi spoke, and the probe struck, two stings, one on my arm one on my chest. I grumbled out a swear and reset into a ready stance. "Even if you're not training in the ways of the jedi, Al'Nagara, you must learn to at least expand your senses in order to properly wield that Lightsaber."

"I understand that, general. I'm not an old hand at this just yet." I quipped back before shaking my head and squaring up once more, I closed my eyes and focused...c'mon Thwei. Focus...you ain't seeing it, but you know it's there. You've done this before boy...adjust your stance. Threat, on your right, present the blade, adjust your grip. Left! Blade flipped behind my back and blocked a bolt, Right! A thrust and the probe was nearly skewered. Reset your stance...bad feeling, hovering of repulsorlift by my ear, my free hand shot up and gripped the training probe. "Heard you sneaking about you little mynock." I muttered as I deactivated the lightsaber and removed the blast helm.

"There's more than just your five senses at work, Al'Nagara. However, that's enough for now. I've learned better than to try and convince you otherwise." Kenobi's amused visage filled my visage as I looked around, turns out it wasn't just Domino Squad around. General Anakin and his Padawan, Ashoka Tano. A togruta female around five years younger than me.

"...Skyguy it's like watching a Wookie padawan." I could see why Skywalker had taken to calling her 'Snips'

"I've only been practicing a couple weeks kid. Cut me some slack, I'm more suited to blasting and the heavy chunk of metal over there. Give me a DC-17 or even a slugthrower. I'll drive tacks. Using my hammer I can tear durasteel." I shot back, deactivating the saber and walking over to the hammer. "Hey General Kenobi, I've got an idea to show the youngling some non-jedi Melee fighting." I said, hefting the hammer up to my shoulder. "Just some basic stances, maybe slow sparring."

"I don't see why not." Was the reply with a shrug. General Kenobi stepped into the training ring. I went opposite him "As you can see by our stances, Padawan Tano, there are two very different schools of thought on the weapons we use. Lightsabers are light, fast, anti-personnel weapons. Al'Nagara's weapon is heavy, taking advantage of his physical strength. He can rip weapons from his enemy's grip, and dent armor and damage the sensitive area beneath, along with that he holds the reach advantage. However, it's slower. By nature of its weight it's not as maneuverable and harder to handle. His stance, see how he rests the head on his shoulder, he knows, once that weighted head goes into motion, it isn't going to stop until it hits something." Kenobi spoke, as I entered a ready stance, feet wide and steady, weight once again on my back foot.

"My stance, I'm low to the ground, ready to dodge and jump should he attack, now, believe it or not I've the advantage right now in a straight fight. Mainly, due to the material my weapon is made of. Cortosis. Stuff is damn near indestructible. It absorbs energy without retaining heat. Blaster bolts, lightsaber blades, hell even slugthrower projectiles. They hit this, all their energy goes bye bye. Lightsabers are particularly affected. They touch this hammer, doesn't even have to be the head. The entire thing is made of cortosis, so even if I block with the haft, their blades will be disabled for a few minutes at the very least. Considering general Kenobi is a defensive fighter, I've taken away one of his main tools to defend, now he has to avoid or be disarmed. Once that happens, I don't need the hammer. I can rush him with my fists, or spray him down with blaster bolts. Even if he dodges, I've got a chance at wounding him. However, once again, General Kenobi is a defensive fighter. He can always dodge, or use the force to manipulate my weapon or me. I can't exactly swing this hammer if he say, throws me across the room with his mind." As I spoke I mimed my actions, a horizontal swing that was ducked, turned into a strike with the handle that disabled the lightsaber, a jab that was caught, and a force push that staggered me back.

"Al'Nagara is progressing rapidly for someone his age and only just now learning the ways of the force. He is not a Jedi, padawan, and he's not meant to be. Forgive my bluntness, but he's acting as the Republic's answer to General Grievous. A force sensitive warrior, fighting alongside his squad to take on lightsaber weilding foes. A hammer to the proverbial nail, so to speak."

 _ **SO, yeah I kinda got caught up working too much to write and this chapter is shorter than I would've liked but it was sitting here essentially ready for a month now and I want to apologize for not getting it out here sooner.**_


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